Interview with David Sønstebø

In case of success

A cryptocurrency trader and a stock market trader meet at a coffee store.

The stocks trader wears an expensive suit and the smile of a high school quarterback. Brown Lacoste shoes and his Aston Martin keys are completing the image of success, let alone his self-assured, cocky demeanor. A second, golden key tag says “tu casa es mi casa“, Wallstreet humor.

He worked several years to reach financial independence that goes way beyond filling his fridge with Moët.

Trading derivatives of mortgages is still profitable he thinks, as he scans the people around him. Even in 2018, ten years after the global economic apocalypse.

“Not everyone can be a winner. I guess these crickets will learn it the hard way when the next mortgage bubble destroys the futures of so many. Good to be on top, yikes!” he reminds himself.

The grayish hoodie sweater next to him orders a bagel and a coffee with milk.

Carl invested in cryptocurrency in 2015, when Ethereum came up for the first time. Yesterday, he watched a documentary about the “Big Short” – The perverted financial carousel almost destroyed society. Ironically, the easy gains of the stock market attracted lots of qualified, smart people. Physicists, mathematicians, “High-frequency trading” has become the exploitative face of the trading landscape as everyone is trying to reach the next percent ROI.

Automated bots are pushing fractions of numbers, a thousand times a second. Particle distribution models and statistic schemes are fuel for these lines of code that are fighting a war against competing bots on the backs of the working class. The obsessive efforts of these HF-traders creating these quant-bots ended in a subjective tunnel, that let them forget what they are trading there. Little green numbers are important, not the real-world consequences.

Wouldn’t it be better if we reach a time where the smart people are compensated for their efforts in their respective profession? The economization of the education system is a problem, he concludes.

“I don’t think this peafowl in a suit is one of the smart kids, though. I better get back home before I start a revolution” as he rescues a slice of tomato and flips a quarter into a cup of a homeless, that is sitting in front of the coffee store.

Carl studied sustainability and found relief in the vision of Satoshi Nakamoto, Vitalik Buterin, David Sønstebø and Come-from-Beyond.

Although cryptoland is rarely unified in their politics, they are in their understanding of what is needed and what not.

The world of stocks/derivative traders and cryptocurrency couldn’t be more different in terms of the outcome.

One side is aiming for individual profits, another one is aiming for a healthy globalization, equality, a better life for everyone. In theory at least.

In case of success, DLT’s will conquer most of the industries for the better.

In case of success, the Semmelweis reflex has been averted.

Today we know that the economic structure of expansion in the world is endless. If China can raise its per head income, other, cheaper countries and areas will produce next. Bangladesh, Africa, parts of the Middle East.

If they can also raise their per head income in a few years, there is no country left that can produce even cheaper.

Expansion on a global scale will find its nemesis in this model of globalization.

In case of success of distributed ledger technologies, though, we can create a landscape of automated cyber-physical systems, that can create value for all of us, without expansion and shifting the production locations.

If we look into the near future, these systems give us the opportunity to silence the bad voices, that tend to aim for an accumulation of wealth.

Instead, we can create a universal basic income.

This idea is not communistic, it’s solution oriented.

With a value-creating industry, we could ensure the adequate supply for everyone. Without expansion, without taking what’s his or hers.

Smart contracts, distributed hard drives, microtransactions.

Tamperproof elections, no mighty intermediaries, no hurdles to send value from Monaco to Somalia.

A world of opportunities opens up that looks so bright compared to the inequality, that can be easily identified, even in western countries, when you go into a coffee store and look around.

The sector model of Jean Fourastié, Allan Fisher and Colin Clark that describes the shifting sectors of industrial nations should be recognized as a model of a transformational period only.

Now, when we have the chance to use ways to face the problems of today, we should use them.

Cryptographic technologies are not for personal gain. That’s the old model.

One Reply to “In case of success”

I fear the ideals described are a bit Utopian… There will always be greed and averice amongst our species. The thought of “everyone doing well”, goes against their beliefs of entitlement and destiny. I’m all for success, and I don’t believe there’s such a thing as too much success in and of itself.
However, when the obscene levels of wealth held by so few in a world where an enormous percentage don’t have enough basic necessities, it’s clear the benevolence of “making it” has gone awry. It has become a field of the “have’s and have not’s”.
I’m not a communist, I’m not a crypto guru, and I’m not a life long philanthropist. I’m not speaking from a bully pulpit.
These views are observations that are evident to even the most casual observers, but ignored by those who still believe they can take it with them when they die!
If the future of global crypto transactions/documentation/security includes independence, safety and security for all, then I hope I’m around long enough to witness it!

@TechCrunch Would love that for the cryptospace, together with a standard they had to accept like using primary sources, commentaries have to be marked as such and conflicts of interests should be marked at the beginning of an article. Crypto desperately needs a standard. #iota #btc #eth